Nature of the Business

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Organization Consolidation And Presentation Of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Nature of the business

1. Nature of the business:

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (the “Company”), incorporated in 1996 under the British Columbia Business Corporations Act and continued federally in 2000 under the Canada Business Corporation Act, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing a pipeline of differentiated therapeutics for orphan indications that it intends to commercialize on its own, and for larger market indications that it intends to partner with global pharmaceutical companies.